If one has read my reviews, they would realize I emphasize album cohesiveness and variety more than many fellow bluegrass writers. I do this because if bluegrass is to be recognized in the same breadth as more popular and appreciated genres, we must hold ourselves to the same standards. That being said, this simply can’t be seen as checking boxes. There must be a purpose and an execution to the sub-genres and styles one wants to recognize and perform. A band such as the timeless Special Consensus should recognize this, and while the execution is there, the purpose is missing. When you have a band that consistently replaces members for forty years, you need to have a few characteristics: a recognizable style, and ability to mold with the times. On Rivers and Roads, the latter has finally over emphasized the former and we are left with a guest list extravaganza disguised as an album.
Special Consensus stretch themselves too thin on ‘Rivers and Roads’
This doesn’t mean the execution is not superb. “Way Down the Road” is a strong intro track originally written by John Hartford. Nick Dumas’s high voice and clean mandolin style are right in their element. So is Rick Faris who has improved exponentially since their last release. All of his breaks including on the intro track are incredibly fresh, energetic, varied, and just plain hot. His off the wall style may not be the favorite of all bluegrass enthusiasts but it’s such a great contrast with the technically sound and clear playing of Dumas.
The rest of the album slows down from there or treads on old territory. “Hurting Sure” featuring the always wonderful Molly Tuttle on clawhammer banjo and vocals. But, why? The Mark Simos original has nothing in its melody that can’t be sung or performed in house. In fact, the chorus places Molly’s voice in this awkward spot where it seems like she is straining to keep herself too confined. When she sings the second verse she is freed relatively, but I still don’t see why Dumas could not sing it. The guitar solo is forgettable as well, but again not a lot to work with on the track, and I’m sure having Molly’s name on the track list will create a lot more album sales for Special Consensus and Compass Records as a whole.
Here is a good rule of thumb for album construction: if you have somebody singing a guest verse on the second song of your album, don’t want the third song also feature a guest verse. Especially when you’re putting poor Bobby Osborne after Molly and it becomes harder and harder to hide that he sounds like he is straining all of his notes. I understand that John Weinberger and Becky Buller (who unleashes an awesome fiddle solo and fills) wrote a song that’s supposed to be transmitted right from the Osborne hay-day, but that doesn’t mean you need to fuel the nostalgia fire to make it a good song. But, they did, and yet again, I’m sure it’s going to create better album sales for Compass Records!
Continuing on the crowd-pleasing-to-a-fault expedition, Special Consensus thought it was a good idea to bring John Hartford back from the dead to introduce “Squirrel Hunter” as well as basically “Tu-Pac” his own fiddle break in there. Oh, this song also includes Allison Brown and the 10 string symphony! Again, one might ask, why? And this question even becomes more paramount when you realize that Dumas and Faris are the strongest performers on the track. Especially Faris with his a-tonal cross picking licks which I would sell my big toe to learn. If that wasn’t enough, Dan Eubanks bass solo is so clean and punchy I need more of it.
Throughout this review I have been dismissing the project, but adoring the execution. If I were one of the executors, (Dumas, Faris, Eubanks) I would have a Rhonda Vincent & the Rage type complex of, “Why are we not good enough to make an album ourselves?” This band has always needed outside song writing, but it never needed outside help. When you have a Dumas and a Faris, you have guys talented enough to be in Lonesome River Band or any other band that emphasizes and has its bread buttered by its mandolin and guitar soloist and vocalist combo. Greg Cahill never disappoints, but it was Allison Brown or Compass records who believed that Special Consensus needed an unjustifiable and unnecessary handicap. This decision hindered the album considerably.
